St. Philip Arists' Guild: Nothing says romance like art

Published 2:01 pm, Thursday, February 7, 2013

On Thursday, Feb. 14, Americans will exchange millions of mass-produced Valentine's Day cards, but people in search of a unique way to express their love can find it Sunday, Feb. 10, in East Norwalk.

The St. Philip Artists' Guild, which is in the Manice DeForest Lockwood Mansion in back of St. Philip Church at 23 France St., is hosting its first Valentine's Day-themed art show from 1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 10 and expects to have more than 100 works of art -- all the size of a greeting card -- on display and for sale.

Only some of the artwork featured Sunday will have obvious connections to Valentine's Day, such as hearts and flowers. In others, romance will be created through the feelings that the artwork inspires. Some works will be original to the tiny canvas, while others will be based off larger paintings that the artists created.

Sherry Becker, one of 12 SPAG artists who has a studio in the mansion, said it was a challenge for the artists to work on canvases that measure only 4 inches by 6 inches.

More Information

Fact box

"You tend to overwork it because it's so small and "you want to get your idea in," she said. "It's a challenge to create a whole thing that works in a tiny space and have it reflect your work, your work in progress.

"You don't want to force it to look Valentine-y."

Becker, a Norwalk resident who majored in painting at Cooper Union Art School in Manhattan, said she normally uses acrylic paints on larger canvases, but switched to watercolors and mixed-media to create pieces for Sunday's show.

"I was using a different technique," she said. "I found it fun to do, but challenging. Just because it's small doesn't mean it can't create a powerful statement."

Becker describes her art as a mixture of impressionism and expressionism and said her work mostly depicts landscapes.

"Most of my work relates to nature and the elements of fire, air, water and earth," she said. "Some are abstract, but you can see that they come from nature. My work is also based on a spiritual connection, too. I often give workshops on meditation and the creative process."

Dave Morico, one of the original five SPAG artists, said his brush strokes on large canvases are normally about the size of the 4-inch by 6-inch canvas that he had to work with for Sunday's show. He said his work is mostly abstract and features energy built up around landscapes, though he'll have some abstract works on Sunday with Valentine's Day decor.

The challenge in working in a space so small is to ensure the artwork doesn't become too heavy, claustrophobic, constrained and composed, according to other SPAG artists interviewed prior to the show.

"It kind of goes both ways," said Bruce Horan, a SPAG artist who received a master of fine arts degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. "You're confining it, squeezing energy and conflict, but at the same time, I don't have enough room to overlay or use expressions I normally would."

Becker said she's a fan of the artwork of Horan, who mostly creates abstract landscapes through painting, printmaking and drawing.

"I always feel they're sort of dreamlike in a way because they have all these things that emerge from them," she said.

Horan said his artwork evolves from in-the-moment inspiration.

"I mainly just kind of close my eyes and attack the canvas," he said. "I let it develop and tell me what it looks like."

Horan said pieces he will exhibit Sunday are similar to his larger pieces, though he will also have "a couple of Valentine's Day-specific pieces."

Dick Ramsey, a SPAG artist, said he doesn't face the same challenges in creating artwork on small canvases because his work is based on digitally-enhanced photographs that can be scaled down to the size of a postcard.

"For a photographer, it's not a challenge," he said.

Ramsey said his work mostly focuses on lighthouses, which he dubbed "America's castles," and which he said are romantic because of the folklore and history surrounding them.

"I'm a big lighthouse freak, so a lot of them will be lighthouses and nautical scenery," he said of works that he'll exhibit Sunday.

Others will be photographs of flowers that he digitally-enhanced to look like paintings.

Donna Davie, a SPAG artist who received a bachelor of arts degree in art/design from Ashland University in Ohio, said she's now in an experimental stage and plans to incorporate textiles, photography and painting in her artwork.

"I love texture and the mixing of texture and color," she said.

Davie, a Norwalk resident, said she's now involved in creating art based on windows and the views that can be seen from them and also has beach-related work.

"It's come down to what really interests me," she said. "I think an artist looks at something real and interprets it into something else, the essence of what it is. I think an abstraction, you take certain elements and you choose certain elements to stand out more than others. You're reinterpreting what's there, and yet it still has to have a balance and a composition."

The Manice DeForest Lockwood Mansion, built in 1912 and a private residence for more than 40 years, later housed a convent and then a substance-abuse treatment center, but was abandoned in the late 1990s. In 2007, the Rev. Michael A. Boccaccio, pastor at St. Philip Church, which owns the building, invited artists to do interior repairs in exchange for having studios on the second floor. Becker said SPAG artists also decorate the church on major holidays.

Sunday's show will be in a former dining room that was recently renovated and visitors will be able to check out the artists' studios, Ramsey said.

"Each one of us has a room where we do our thing," he said.

Ramsey, a former Norwalk resident for 35 years who now lives in Stamford, said SPAG plans to have three to four exhibits a year and is open to having other artists exhibit their work in the mansion, as well.

"The parish priest wants us to do three, but we're hoping to do more," he said. "We want to get more exposure. Nobody knows what we're doing here."

Admission to Sunday's show is free and champagne and chocolate will be served, according to SPAG. The price of the postcard-sized art is $20 each.